Letters

PEKING DUCKED

You opened Paul Rafaelle’s marvellous recollections of life as a resident correspondent in the Chinese capital by noting that Mr Rafaelle had been stationed in “Peking (now Beijing)”. Actually, it is still Peking, just as Moskva is Moscow, Warszawa is Warsaw, Praha is Prague, Wien is Vienna and Baile Atha Cliath is Dublin.

The modern habit of using the local name of major world cities, rather than the established English name, is rooted in politics and is much too readily accepted by British,